


Woolly Bear

by RascalBot



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, real smooth Zimmermann well done
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-12
Updated: 2014-10-12
Packaged: 2018-02-20 21:50:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2444408
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RascalBot/pseuds/RascalBot
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bitty is cold and sleepy.  Jack is a pillow.  A barely believable premise as an excuse to write cute hockey boys cuddling.  Now with title spelled correctly.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Woolly Bear

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first new thing I've written in weeks. Feels good! Maybe this will finally get me in the headspace to actually write my thesis oh hey look a gif on the internet.
> 
> Happy birthday Ngozi! Thank you as always for blessing us with your comic.
> 
> ETA: TURNS OUT THERE'S TWO Ls IN WOOLLY BEAR

"Alrighty, folks," Shitty declared as he bent to slide the DVD into the player, giving the rest of the Haus an unparallelled view of his Wonder Woman boxers. "Tonight, we are viewing _Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban_ , in our ongoing series, 'Force the Uncultured French-Canadian Beaver that is Jack Zimmermann to Know Fucking Anything about Harry Potter.'  Lardo, do you have the remote?"

"Bitty's got it."  Lardo reached up from the floor and shook Bitty's knee.  "Hey, Bitty, wake up!"

"Ack - sorry, what?"  Bitty yawned tremendously. 

"Bro, you dozed off at like 6PM," Ransom exclaimed, grabbing the remote off his lap.

"Sorry, sorry..." Bitty sat up straight.  "I had a late night last night, and our esteemed captain woke me up at 4 o'clock this morning."  By way of emphasis he stuck his tongue out at Jack, who was just emerging from the kitchen with the oversize bowl of popcorn.  "I barely got a wink of sleep.  And it was _freezing_."

Jack slid onto the couch next to him.  "You'll thank me later, Bittle."

"Maybe next summer when I thaw out."  Bitty tugged on the strings of his hoodie.  "I swear this whole state is on a glacier."

"It's fifty degrees."

"See? Y'all have messed up temperatures up here.  Anyway, I think I have my excuses for being a bit tired, thank you."  Bitty snatched a handful of popcorn from the bowl before Ransom and Holster started fighting over it.

Shitty rolled his eyes.  "All right, we will explain to Bitty later that we get weather here in Massachusetts.  Start the movie."

Despite, or perhaps because of, the constant stream of commentary from the rest of the team, Jack just could not see what all the fuss was about.  Nevertheless, he made what he considered a heroic effort to follow the plot.  Towards the end of the movie, Jack noticed the warm weight against his left shoulder.  He looked around and saw Bitty leaning against him, knees tucked close to his chest, eyes closed, breathing deep and even. He looked utterly peaceful.  Looking down on him, Jack felt a subtle stir somewhere in the pit of his stomach before noticing the wide eyes and wider grins of his teammates all directed at him.

Jack rolled his eyes.  "C'mon, Bittle..."  He reached out a hand to push Bitty the other way and was met with a chorus of whispered "Nonononono!" He stared disbelievingly at the rest of his team.

"You're not really going to make him move, are you, Jack?" Holster entreated.  "I mean, look at him!"

"He's so comfy!  And he's all curled up!" Ransom added.

"I mean, that shit's adorable," Shitty said fondly.  "He's like a fuckin' woolly bear."

Jack wrinkled his brow.  "A woolly bear?"

"Yeah, you know, those adorable little fuzzy motherfuckers with the brown and black stripes?"  Shitty asked.  "Those are woolly bears."

"You find 'em all curled up around this time of year," Lardo explained.  "They do that when they're hibernating."

"Just like Bitty," Holster added.

"Yeah, yeah, and in the winter, they freeze totally solid!" Shitty interjected.

"Just like Bitty!" Ransom said triumphantly.

Lardo clapped a hand over Shitty's mouth to muffle his laughter. 

"Wait... totally solid?"  Holster's brow furrowed.  "You mean they just become these little caterpillar icicles until spring comes?"

"Yeah yeah, it's part of their evolution," Ransom said excitedly.  "I know I read about this.  They freeze up when it's cold out, and they have this, like, this natural freezing mechanism that makes them totally fine when they thaw."

"Bro, that's crazy!  I couldn't handle that."

"Right? I'd fuckin' move to the tropics.  I bet there's this whole woolly bear immigration to Florida or some shit."

The chatter of the rest of the team faded into the background as Jack glanced down at Bitty again.  He did look too comfortable to disturb.  On a whim, he gently slid his arm around Bitty's shoulders.  Bitty sighed and settled against him, while Jack's heartbeat fluttered for probably totally unrelated reasons.  

If the rest of the team noticed, they gave no sign.

"We gotta see if there's a documentary on Netflix or something, man.  That shit is crazy."

"And there are definitely weirder bug things out there."

Ransom, Holster, and Lardo were already making their way to the stairs.  "Jack, we're gonna go look up a bug documentary to watch after this," Shitty said, handing him the remote.  "You watch this all the way to the end, all right?  No fuckin' turning to whatever hockey thing might be on ESPN until it's over."

Jack smiled ruefully.  "Got it."

Bitty shifted against him as Shitty clattered up the stairs.  "Nnn-- Did I fall asleep again?"

"You're fine," Jack answered, tightening his arm around Bitty's shoulders. 

His eyelids were starting to feel heavy as well.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Woolly bears also curl up as a defense mechanism for when they feel threatened... just like Bitty.


End file.
